The Palmer- Worm. 105 



were formed naked on the surface of the soil and otliers in a slioflit 

 silken web just beneath the surface of the soil. Probably most of 

 the pupa? would be found on the leaves in the orchard, but should 

 a rain-storm drive or knock the full-grown caterpillars from the 

 trees, as it easily might do, then doubtless mariv would pupate on 

 the ground under leaves or other protection, or possibly on the 

 rough bark of a tree. 



The insect remains enshrouded for about ten days in this pupal 

 skin, where most of its elal)oration or transformation from a cater- 

 pillar to the adult or moth takes place. 



Emerg-ence and habits of the moths. — Some of the moths 

 emerge from the pupa? during the last week in June, but a majority 

 of them appear during the iirst ten days in July. Apparently 

 the moths are not active durino" the dav, unless disturbed, when 

 they fly but a short distance and alight. Tliey rest on the leaves 

 or in cracks or crannies in the characteristic position shown in 

 figure '24:, standing with the forward portion of the body raised 

 slightly. 



Where and how does the insect live between July and the 

 next June ? — -All writers have been silent on this important ques- 

 tion of how and where the palmer-worm passes nearly eleven months 

 of its yearly life-cycle ; we find no hint or guess in the literature on 

 this point. Nearly all of the moths we reared emerged from the 

 otli to the 10th of July. And confidently expecting that they 

 would soon lav eo:i>:s from which would hatch another brood of cater- 

 pillars, we placed many moths in cages containing fresh leafy 

 branches of apple and a piece of bark. AVe kept the cages supplied 

 with fresh branches, but at the end of al>out a week, we could dis- 

 cover no eggs and some of the moths had died. We then moistened 

 some lumps of loaf sugar, and put them on the soil in the cages. 

 The moths be^an feedino; on the sus^ar in a few minutes, and some 

 could be seen feeding at almost any time afterward. No moths died 

 as long as we kept them supplied with the sugar, and, although we 

 kept fresh branches in the cages and carefully examined the old 

 branches when removed, we failed to find any eggs. This was con- 

 tinued until we were much surprised to see those tiny moths live in 

 our small cages from July 5th until nearly November 1st, almost 



